The Rhetorical Situation

So after some difficulty getting through this article and figuring out where the author was going with it I found out that the author was just explaining rhetoric and all that it entails. As I started to decipher it all, I realized that rhetorical situation is the context of a rhetorical act. Also, all rhetorical situations must contain an audience, exigence, and constraints. Along with that it must involve a response that is fitting to the given situation, which means that all the parts are completed by the main overall aspect of the situation on hand. Basic characteristics of a rhetorical situation are that “rhetorical discourse is called into existence by situation.”

The structure of it can also be very simple or extremely complex. There can be just a few points in the rhetorical situation and it can be very basic and doesn’t have much to go off of if it’s just a simple situation. But on the other hand it can be more elaborate and have many different aspects and parts to it. The author gives good examples to help relay his ideas and help the audience understand where he’s coming from. He also had some good points and explained it well with good detail. “To say the situation is objective, publicly observable, and historic means that it is real or genuine- that our critical examination will certify its existence.” The situation is then factual and has a credible source, and worth your time, if it is “objective and historic.”

Overall, this article was rather wordy and a bit long for my liking. I feel the author could have summed up his points and shortened it to make it easier to read. It also would have kept the attention of his audience and not lost them on his long tangents.